The Local SEO Tutorial and Guide 2017

Written by: Jason Bayless | June 08, 2017

Local SEO has become one of the major tools used in establishing the online presence for most businesses in 2017. The online local demand for products and services is on the rise, so a proper SEO plan for your business would be ideal. Local SEO deals with the optimization of your business for people searching in a nearby location. Local search engine optimization is a complex issue compared to the standard SEO but following the guide below takes you through the process step by step.

1) Google my business

This is the most important feature in local SEO that tells a customer about business, what it does, location, and various operations. The My Business dashboard contains accurate information about a business page. Without it, information about a page would not appear on local map listing after a search engine search. Setting up the page is not hard, and you only require going to Google My Business and making a claim. After that, Google sends a verification code to your address that you can enter on the page. The business owner should check whether their name, address and phone number (NAP) is correct. Adding an engaging description, working hours, right business categories for your business, and reviews helps complete the Google My Business page.

2) Include a Geotag and embed a Google Map

Plenty of online tools help in the generation of location specific geo tags that allow the search engines to identify the location of your business. Embedding a Google Map that points exactly to your address helps improve the Google SEO rankings.

3) Keyword Optimization

Every business should have clear targets that it should follow. A good keyword should contain the main word(s) or phrases that people would use in the search, the name of the city of operations, and the state too. The keyword should appear in the key areas such as the homepage title, meta-description, main menu, sidebar, and footer among others. Use of Google Trends to check the ranking of the keywords helps in the formulation of keywords that are not bound to flop after a short time.

4) Local Link Building and Citation

Local SEO relies heavily on citations from other sites that are relevant to your business. Therefore, it would be ideal to focus on link mentions from sites that offer similar services to your business rather than relying heavily on the high authority websites alone. Some of the ways to build links are through the participation of charity event, local PR outreach, and interviews with online publication. Offering scholarships and donations also helps in building links.

5) Local Listing registration

Listing your business in various online listing pages such as BBB, Yelp, and Whitepages helps retain a good local SEO ranking. Registration in such listings helps in building credibility and improves the business relevance for search engines.

Conclusion

The process of optimizing your website for Google rankings may be tedious and lengthy but the outcome is worth the wait. Tracking the progress after the completion of the optimization process is very important to ensure that you remain among the top ranked sites throughout the year.